Electrical Safety Tips to Consider for Your Home

When you are looking to change up the electrical systems in your home, you may think that you can and should just dive right in and work on it yourself. While you may be fully capable of doing most construction work yourself, elec trical systems can be complicated and dangerous if you are not an expert.

Before you jump right in and start changing out indoor or outdoor lighting in Houston or trying to rewire your entire project yourself, you should get to know a few basic electrical safety tips to help you out in the process. Then you can be sure that you are as safe as possible whether you decide to do the work yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Understand Different Types of Outlets

Whether you are looking to install a new outlet, replace current ones, or you just happened to notice that you have a lot of things plugged into a single outlet, it can be helpful to understand the different types of outlets that you may find in your home.

If you have an older home, you may have noticed that many of your electrical outlets, for example, only have two slots for prongs rather than three. These are known as ungrounded electrical outlets and can be quite dangerous.

Grounding an electrical outlet means to give it a safe way to return to the ground in the event of an overloaded circuit or power surge. Essentially, it is a protective barrier that can prevent fires, shock, and damage to the appliances or other items plugged into your outlet.

These older two-prong outlets lack that grounding. It is not enough to just plug in an adapter to these outlets. You need to replace them with grounded three-prong outlets, which requires rewiring in your home as the grounding element must be wired as well.

Label All of Your Circuit Breakers

On a dear day, when there will be little chance of a lightning strike or other power surge, you may want to take the time to get to know your home’s circuit breaker. The circuit breaker is a box of switches usually found in the basement or utility room of your home.

It is the central hub inside of your home for your electrical system, and each switch is for specific appliances or areas of your home. If your circuit breaker is not already labeled or the labeling is unclear, it is time to add labels to your circuit breaker box. Turn on the lights and, if possible, appliances in your home.

You can have a family member help you find which area of the house turns off as you flip each breaker (or you can go around the house and look for yourself). Then, label each one with the appropriate label (i.e., living room, master bedroom, etc.).

Knowing which area of the house is attached to each circuit breaker can help you when you do electrical work throughout your home. To rewire a lighting fixture or change outlets, you will need to shut off the electrical current that goes to that area of your home to avoid shock, fire, and injuries.

Having those circuits labeled will make it easier to remain safe no matter what electrical projects you work on throughout your entire home.

Now that you know a few key safety tips to utilize when you are doing electrical work throughout your house, you can be sure that you are doing everything in your power to remain as safe and injury-free as possible. Even if you have a professional come to help you with your electrical work or outdoor lighting, these tips can help keep them safe as well.

Call or contact us today to start your project! Visit our blog for more lighting tips!